Black Arts Movement

The amazing era of the Black Arts Movement developed the concept of an influential and artistic blackness that created controversial but significant organizations such as the Black Panther Party. The Black Arts Movement called for "an explicit connection between art and politics" (Smith). This movement created the most prevalent era in black art history by taking stereotypes and racism and turning it into artistic value. This connection between black art and politics was first made clear in a great essay written by Larry Neal in the summer of 1968. This essay illustrated the Black Arts Movement's "manifesto" or plan. Neal wrote: "The Black Arts Movement is radically opposed to any concept of the artist that alienates him from his community" (Smith). Meaning, all black people must reorganize the creativity of the Western culture because of their "desire for self-determination and nationhood "(Smith). Neal hoped that when the black community collectively join to create an new art form they would become powerful and strengthened in their society. Neal was just one of the important writers of the Black Arts Movement era. Other writers, poets, and essayists illustrated a new beginning for the black community to overcome their hardships and to rise up artistically.

The concept of Black Power stemmed from the Black Arts Movement. Black Power was a political movement that arose to express a new racial consciousness among Blacks in the United States. Black Power represented a racial dignity leading to freedom from white authority in economic and political grounds. In this era, African Americans went back to learn from old cultural history and traditions (Gladney). Major goals for Black Power were for all Black people to define the world in their own terms and to reject racism such as black on black violence and police brutality. As Black Power began to grow, it received both strong disapproval from whites and several African American organizations such as the NAACP. They probably disapproved of them because Black Power followers harshly bashed whites as well as a black community who watched and waited for changed instead of making it. The Black Panther Party became the largest Black organization advocating Black Power (Gladney). Scholars of African American art and politics still see the idea of Black Power as a strong effect on the consciousness of Black America today, though it had died out in mid 1970s (Smith). Black Power writers largely redefined and reshaped the expectations of Black literature to their own standards much alike modern day rappers. The ability of a particular group of artists to be able to define their own work is crucial to the development of an aesthetic (Gladney).

One of the most influential writers of this era was Amiri Baraka. Baraka's plays, poetry, essays, screenplays, and short fiction express his fury at a narrow-minded society encouraging racism. Gladney describes that Baraka, also known as, LeRoi Jones was born in Newark, NJ, in 1934. He attended Rutgers University and served in the military for three years before settling in Greenwich Village at the heart of the creative scene. Baraka opened the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School in 1964. The school became one of the most influential theaters within the Black Arts Movement and brought music, art, poetry and drama to the street corners of Harlem for the first time after the Harlem Renaissance (Gladney). After Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965, the artistic school closed. He later opened Spirit House in Newark, NJ (Bader). Baraka was involved in almost every aspect of the beginning of the Black Arts Movement and in many other Black political and cultural movements, including participation with the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. Baraka was instrumental in the defining of the artistic principles of the Black Arts movement (Gladney). In his poem "Black Art," he wrote, We want "poems that kill."

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

...Abstract Expressionism ArtMovement History
By: Sharmé Jackson
Abstract Expressionism started in America as a post-World War II artmovement. It was the first avant-garde artmovement that arose from America. Never before in the history of art, the personality of an artist took such central stage and became both an inspiration and the subject of his/her own art. It is challenging to narrow down such multifaceted phenomenon as Abstract Expressionism, to distil the core of this intricate style.
Any new phenomenon arises within a certain historical and cultural context. So in order to better understand the nature of Abstract Expressionism and reasons why it was formed in the United States and not it Europe, it is necessary to look at the environment in which it was originally fostered. One of the fundamental historical forces that shaped identity of the artists was World War II and The Holocaust in Europe. The fall of France in 1940 to Nazi occupation, forced many prominent artists to flee Europe and seek asylum in the United States. Because of this Europe had lost its creative “blood and soul” and consequently the ability to be the artistic Mecca of the world, thus causing the center of creative gravity being shifted to America. In 1945, the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, introducing nuclear war which...

...﻿
The Effect of the Industrial Revolution on ArtMovements of the Twentieth Century
HUMN451 Contemporary Fine Arts
DeVry University
04/13/2014
Abstract:
This research examines the effect that the Industrial Revolution had on society and selected artmovements of the twentieth century. To understand how art was affected by the rapid technological and social changes that occurred; it is important to present a summarized history of the Industrial Revolution. Some historians debate the exact beginning of this event but there is a general consensus that it occurred in mid-eighteenth century England. This period in time was marked by a population shift to urban areas as a result of industrialization. This not only changed how people lived but created a new ideology and economic order. Capitalism and consumerism created a growing middle class as a result of economic expansion brought about by the industrialization of western societies. Modern art of this time period was no longer bound to the traditional sources of financial support. New artists were free to experiment with the content of their art. Multiple artmovements formed over time; three movements have been chosen in this paper. The selected artistic movements are Futurism, Dadaism, and Situationism and...

...There have been different art forms that have come and gone over the course of time. Some of the most intriguing art forms in my mind come from the 20th century. Out of all of these 20th century art forms, geometric abstract art and pop art are my favorite. These two artmovements came close to each other in reference to time period. Geometric abstract art originated in the 7th century but became a dominant movement in 1937. Pop art emerged in the 1950s. These two art forms were similar in ways but they had different moods of expression. We will take a closer look at each one of these forms of art.
Geometric abstraction form uses lines, squares, triangles and circles painted with primary or secondary colors or are sculpted in steel or aluminum. As mentioned, the focus of geometric abstraction began in New York after the outbreak of World War II where the tradition was continued by the American Abstract Artists group formed in 1937. The War had a great impact on the economy that was struggling to recover. War is always something that has effects on families and friends that have the daily threat of losing loved ones to injuries or even death. Being that art is a mighty way to express one self, geometric abstraction became popular throughout this time in history. The economic recovery after...

...“Of all the arts, abstract painting is the most difficult. It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have a heightened sensitivity for composition and for colors, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential." -- Wassily Kandinsky.
Abstract Art is art that is not a precise demonstration of a form or object. This depiction can be diverged in many ways including the shape, color, and form. The artist takes the object and then either simplifies it or exaggerates it using these things. There were three artmovements that played a role in the development of the form of art called abstract. These were the Romanticism, Impressionism and expressionism.
There are many distinctive abstract styles. There are three forms of abstraction that are most common. Cubism, Neoplasticism, and Abstract Expressionism. There are many abstract artists who painted in these styles, however there are some that are more well know in a particular field than the rest. For example, the some of the most famous cubist were Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. One of the best examples of Neoplasticism is Piet Mondrian . Two of the most famous examples of Abstract Expressionism are Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock.
The basic idea behind abstract art is that the formal qualities of a painting (or sculpture) are just as important (if not more so) than its representational...

...looks like it looks.
Baroque: (1600 - 1750)
Baroque was a characteristic of a style in art and architecture developed in Europe from the early 17th to mid-18th century. Baroque artwork combines dramatic compositions, beautiful details, and emotionally charged subject matter to give viewers as intense a visual experience as possible. Its original meaning – “irregular, contorted, grotesque”—is now largely superseded. It is generally agreed that the new style was born in Rome during the final years of the sixteenth century. Baroque Art is less complex, more realistic and more emotionally affecting than Mannerism. The “The Union of Earth and Water” by Rubens is a good example of Baroque style painting. Rubens shows off his skill at arranging several figures in a beautiful swirling composition while perfectly depicting each element of the painting—flowers, fruits, cloth, and flesh. The painting’s drama, movement, violence, exuberance, exaggeration, large scale, and strong contrast of light and dark are all characteristics of Baroque style, which is very different than the Neoclassicism.
Neoclassicism: (1750 - 1830)
Neoclassicism is a nineteenth century French art style and movement that originated as a reaction to the Baroque. This period gave rebirth to the art of ancient Rome and Greece and the Renaissance as an opposition to the ostentatious Baroque and Rococo art that...

...
-------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------
Realism in the arts
Main article: Realism (arts)
Realism in theatre denotes any movement towards greater fidelity to real life, as in Kitchen sink realism, an English cultural movement in the 1950s and 1960s that concentrated on contemporary social realism, or Poetic realism, a film movement in France in the 1930s that used heightened aestheticism. In the visual arts the term denotes any approach that depicts what the eye can see, such as in American realism, a turn of the 20th century idea in arts, Classical Realism, an artistic movement in late 20th Century that valued beauty and artistic skill. Literary realism particularly denotes a 19th century literary movement. Neorealism is a movement emphasising realism in cinema and literature while the New Realism is an artistic movement founded in 1960 by Pierre Restany and Yves Klein. Romantic realism is an aesthetic art term popularized by writer/philosopher Ayn Rand.Aesthetic Realism is a philosophy founded by Eli Siegel.
Forms of political realism in the arts have included Nazi heroic realism or the art of the third Reich, a style of propaganda art associated with Nazi Germany, Social realism, an artistic...

...Styles of Art
Artists used many styles in their paintings and drawings. Here are some of the more common styles of art. Learn about each style and how to identify it. Next time you look at a painting, try to figure out what style it is! To see some artwork done in the different styles, check out the Art By Kids page.
Abstract -- Cubism -- Expressionism -- Fauvism
Impressionism -- Pointillism -- Pop Art -- Postimpressionism
Primitivism -- Realism -- Surrealism
THE STYLES | ABOUT THE STYLES | THE ARTISTS |
Abstract | Abstract artists felt that paintings did not have to show only things that were recognizable. In their paintings they did not try to show people, animals, or places exactly as they appeared in the real world. They mainly used color and shape in their paintings to show emotions. Some Abstract art is also called Non-objective art. In non-objective art, you do not see specific objects. It is not painted to look like something specific. | Sonia DelaunayJackson Pollock |
Cubism | Cubism is modern art made up mostly of paintings. The paintings are not supposed to look real The artist uses geometric shapes to show what he is trying to paint. Early cubists used mainly grays, browns, greens, and yellows. After 1914, Cubists started to use brighter colors. Cubism was the beginning of the Abstract and Non-objective art styles. |...

...material objects and consumer goods crept into the world of art as never before. The presence of well-known corporate symbols and mass-produced goods in modern art reflected the commercialization of popular culture. This was known as Pop Art. While it is certainly the artmovement most famous for it’s materialism it is not infact the first time that philosophy and ideas that centred around materialistic views were apparent. Without meaning and philosophy there is no art, if someone creates with no meaning behind their work, they are little more than craftsmen. The use of philosophy is what separates artists and creates meaning behind their art works.
The history of materialism is a long and varied one with many believing that the use of materialistic philosophy began as early as 600 BCE. In Ancient Indian philosophy, materialism developed with the works of Ajita Kesakambali, Payasi, Kanada, and the advocates of the Cārvāka school of philosophy.
The first philosophical movement that prided itself on the use of materialism was during The Enlightenment, a period of time ranging from part of the 17th century through much of the 18th century, characterized particularly by the importance of reason and logic, as well as by a growing public audience. It culminated in the American and French revolutions, as well as the Industrial Revolution.
The Enlightenment...